How Blockchain will Unify the Medical Marketplace Around Patient Empowerment

If you haven’t been by the MintHealth Medium channel yet, click on over and read this op-ed by Founder and CEO, Dr. Samir Damani, as he lays out the initial case for how the blockchain can create true data liquidity (something we’ll dive in to more in coming weeks) and help usher in a new era of health platforms and care. Here’s an excerpt to get you started:

“…Blockchain is a decentralized, digital record that offers security, oversight, permissioned access to data, ease of use and auditability. Rather than having a single data repository, as is common with cloud computing, information is distributed over thousands of computer nodes, and the records are constantly being audited against each other. This distributed information model makes blockchain virtually impossible to hack.

This technology opens an incredible array of opportunities. Patients can have unhindered access and seamless movement of their own, self-sovereign medical records. Their information would no longer be siloed in one health care system’s EHR. If there’s an emergency, they simply share their cryptographic key with clinicians or readily send records. Every individual controls their own data.

But it’s more than just controlling and sharing information. Our current approach to healthcare is epistrophic – episodic visits to physicians to receive care for catastrophic conditions. Chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer account for 90 percent of total healthcare costs, and most risk factors for these conditions including obesity, hypertension, sedentary behaviors, and poor nutrition aren’t being managed.

In essence, we aren’t giving patients the tools to manage their risks for developing and suffering from chronic conditions. Blockchain’s data liquidity combined with digital incentives enables a more holistic approach to care…”